The New Brunswick Police Association, representing frontline municipal police officers in the province, is calling for an inquiry into how the New Brunswick Police Commission is operating.
Labour analyst Bob Davidson of the Police Association says the Police Commission is out of control and has changed from oversight to being prosecutorial.
The Police Act is being reviewed by Public Safety Minister Stephen Horsman and Davidson says part of that review is the role of the Police Commission.
He also predicts provincial taxpayers will be on the hook for all the appeals of Police Commission decisions that will be launched. At one time, there was a list of mutually agreed upon arbitrators and, as such, there were no appeals. Davidson says the Police Commission now unilaterally appoints the arbitrator.
Cherie Campbell is appealing her dismissal from the Fredericton Police Department following a hearing after she was arrested in Houlton, Maine for shoplifting. A trial on the charge was held but the jury could not reach a verdict. Despite that, arbitrator Cedric Haines ruled, in his view, Campbell stole 20 dollars worth of cosmetics.
Meantime, Executive Director of the Police Commission Steve Roberge responding by saying “our response is that the New Brunswick Police Commission cannot respond to any comments made by the New Brunswick Police Association, a lobby group, while there is an ongoing criminal investigation of their executive.”
